S1-2A by fasthighlights

Sunderland has always been a tough side to crack and yesterday was no different on a horrible pitch at the Stadium of Blight. The first half was marked by the usual spectacle of Arsenal bossing the ball with little to show. Sunderland known for its strong defending did just that but their counterattacking was laboured.

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland 1-1 Middlesbrough FA Cup 29th January 2012

Frazier Campbell made a goalscoring return from injury at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, netting the Black Cats' equaliser after 18 months out of action.

Sunderland v Middlesbrough 2012 FA Cup Highlights 1-1 Video Goals Barry Robson Frazier Campbell is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Sunderland v Middlesbrough 2012 FA Cup Highlights 1-1 Video Goals Barry Robson Frazier Campbell is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Sunderland v Middlesbrough 2012 ( Sunderland Boro video below) Final score and result: Sunderland vs Middlesbrough 1-1 ( Campbell/ Robson) Stadium of Light, Sunderland- 29 January, 2012- Sunday North Eastern [.

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland 2-0 Swansea City Premier League 21 January 2012

Despite dominating for large periods of the game, Swansea's lack of a cutting edge would cost them dear against a Sunderland side who to continue to flourish under Martin O'Neill.

Newcastle's hopes of taking advantage of Chelsea's draw at Norwich were stopped by a five-goal second-half blitz from Fulham as they lost 5-2 at Fulham.

Fulham were poor in the first-hald and it was no surprise that Newcastle scored first thanks to a Danny Guthrie thunderbolt from outside the area.

Alex Oxlade Chamberlain

Alex made his big move to Arsenal in the summer for a massive £15million. The England U21 international has been outstanding when he has featured this season and will have a big part to play in the second half of the season. At the start of December Wenger tipped Chamberlain to make the England 2012 squad for the summer tournament which could him play more and more in the second half of the season.

Alex Oxlade Chamberlain

Alex made his big move to Arsenal in the summer for a massive £15million. The England U21 international has been outstanding when he has featured this season and will have a big part to play in the second half of the season. At the start of December Wenger tipped Chamberlain to make the England 2012 squad for the summer tournament which could him play more and more in the second half of the season.

By Alan Duffy

Chelsea 1-0 Sunderland Premier League 14th January 2012

Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien returned to first team duty for Chelsea against Sunderland on Saturday, making a welcome substitute appearance after missing the first half of the season with a cruciate ligament injury.

Video- Craig Gardner goal vs Wigan free kick for Sunderland January 2012 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Video- Craig Gardner goal vs Wigan free kick for Sunderland January 2012 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter This stunning Craig Gardner goal vs Wigan ( see video below) put Sunderland 1-0 ahead in their fixture against the Latics on 3rd January, 2012.

Wigan vs Sunderland 1-4 Highlights Craig Gardner goal Video free kick Vaughan 2012 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Wigan vs Sunderland 1-4 Highlights Craig Gardner goal Video free kick Vaughan 2012 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Wigan vs Sunderland 2012 ( Wigan v Sunderland 2012 video below) Final score and result:- Wigan vs Sunderland 1-4 ( Rodallega/ Gardner, McClean, Sessegnon, Vaughan) DW Stadium, Wigan- 3rd January, 2012- [.

Sunderland may not be in trophy-winning form this season, but their victory in the always-eventful 'sack race' may prove to be a blessing in disguise.

After looking tame and lacking confidence for much of this campaign under Steve Bruce, with a paltry 11 points from 14 matches their return, new club chairman Ellis Short felt the club needed to go in a new direction.

England U-21s 5-0 Iceland U-21s: Sordell shines

Liverpool's Martin Kelly and Villa's Craig Gardner also amongst the goals

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-11-10 22:09:50 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Darren Bent's first return to Wearside since his switch to Aston Villa has dominated the headlines, but Steve Bruce will more concerned with trying to find what would only be his third home win of 2011.

Alex McLeish is coming off the back of two losses; one far from unexpected, the other extremely disappointing.

Nicklas Bendtner was starting for the third time in a row when Sunderland travelled South to take on newly promoted to the Barclays Premiership, Norwich City. You could tell that Nicklas and co were getting a little more used to their roles and how each other play with some nice crisp passing and some nice movement between all the new signings.

Sunderland A.f.c won for the first time on Sunday afternoon, against a rugged Stoke City side. To be honest, without sounding disrespectful Sunderland are not known for their intracut passing moves and most the midfielders, bar Seb Larsson + Sessegnon are there to stop goals rather than create them.

By Alan Duffy

Despite spending a fair amount of money on his Sunderland team, Steve Bruce has endured a rather rubbish start to the season. However, at home to Stoke on Sunday, the Black Cats finally marked their territory by weeing all over the Potters.

Not famed for his goalscoring ability, Titus Bramble opened the scoring while summer signings Craig Gardner and Seb Larsson also helped to give the Black Cats their first win of the new season.

By Rumour Monger

After spending the summer making a decuplet of signings that all rate somewhere fairly high on the 'impressive' spectrum (Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Connor Wickham, Seb Larsson, Craig Gardner, etc), Sunderland are about to add an eleventh and, perhaps, this one is the most impressive of them all.

Liverpool will be desperate for a winning start against Sunderland after Kenny Dalglish's first pre-season since returning to the Reds dug-out.
There is renewed optimism at Anfield with the Reds legend having spent big this summer in a bid to continue their strong finish to last season and re-establish themselves as genuine Premier League title contenders.

For the second year in a row, Liverpool start the Premier League season at home, looking to get the first full season of Kenny Dalglish's renewed reign off on the right foot. We say it every year, regardless of the action during the summer this is what we've all been waiting for. The transfer deadline keeps a bit of nonsense around until the end of August, but we're ever closer to having a singular focus on the Premier League season, and that's about as good as it gets.

Despite the threat of matches being cancelled amongst the hostility in major english cities, right now all games are said to be going ahead this weekend. With that in mind, we should turn our attentions to the new Premier League season which is just three days away.

Liverpool and Sunderland square up on Saturday, and both have new look squads as they head in to the new season.

Last season's 'prediction' wasn't a complete failure – at least in the top seven. I had Chelsea pipping United to the title (which looked possible until the Blues bought that misfiring traitorous foreigner), City and Arsenal in third and fourth, and Liverpool ahead of Tottenham – insane in retrospect, but still would have happened had Liverpool won its final two matches.

Quick Reminder, Real Life What started brightly with a forward line of DBent, Gyan, and Campbell came closer to the relegation zone than anyone who watched the first half of the season or looked at the final standings would ever have guessed. February, March, and the first half of April were an unmitigated disaster with the club earning exactly 1 point between Feb 1 and April 16.

Birmingham City fans reached the highs of winning their first trophy in over 40 years last season and then suffered the lows of relegation from the Premier League.

Then this summer, the manager who won them that trophy left the club in their hour of need to join their city rivals Aston Villa.

Liverpool could be set to make a £10million move for Lee Cattermole with the Sunderland player devastated at losing the captaincy to new boy John O'Shea.
Black Cats boss Steve Bruce has handed his recent signing from Manchester United the armband, delivering a massive blow to the tenacious Cattermole.

Newcastle have signed four players so far this season. Craig Gardner - could have been good buy for Newcastle But Sunderland signed four players last week, one transfer each in successive days, as it turned out. First in was 18 year-old Connor Whickham from Ipswich, the 18 year-old England U21 International striker, for an initial [.

I've already gone on record in thinking that NUFC are among the mid-table clubs that have done very well for themselves thus far. They've gone from highly volatile and a bit long in the tooth to more solid if perhaps a little less potentially spectacular. West Brom has quietly solidified themselves in the back with some solid acquisitions as well.

photo courtesy SAFC.com Gardner is a Black Cat | Latest Sunderland News | Team & Transfer News | Sunderland AFC | Sunderland Steve Bruce has completed the signing of Craig Gardner from Birmingham City. The Solihull-born 24-year-old joins Sunderland on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee, becoming the Black Cats' third signing in just over 24 hours following the acquisitions of Connor

photo courtesy SAFC.com Gardner is a Black Cat | Latest Sunderland News | Team & Transfer News | Sunderland AFC | Sunderland Steve Bruce has completed the signing of Craig Gardner from Birmingham City. The Solihull-born 24-year-old joins Sunderland on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee, becoming the Black Cats' third signing in just over 24 hours following the acquisitions of Connor

Sky Sports sources understand that Sunderland are set to seal a deal for Birmingham City midfielder Craig Gardner.

The season is over so please forgive me for talking about something with little to no relation to United. The story links with Sunderland, our second XI/Mini Manchester United, so I guess it's not completely random.

I've just read that Craig Gardner is set to sign for Steve Bruce after spending the last 18 months at relegated Birmingham City.

News over the weekend that Sunderland are about to make signings of two players who were Newcastle targets. Craig Gardner - a good young player The Sebastian Larsson saga may be finally over, as the 25 year-old is expected to rejoin Steve Bruce at Sunderland, as a free agent. That's even though former club Arsenal [.

Liverpool and Arsenal are ready to battle it out for Birmingham City ­centre- half Scott Dann – but prices in the Blues' clear-out are proving too high.
Kenny Dalglish and Arsene Wenger are keen on the 24-year-old defender, who is viewed as a cheap alternative to other targets like Bolton's Gary Cahill and Blackburn's Chris Samba.

This is the second in InTheStands' Transfermation series exploring the potential summer ahead for all Premiership clubs involved....this addition: Aston Villa

Where they stand:

Well, well, well, if I was an Aston Villa fan I would be sceptical – looking down the barrel at another mid-table finish.

Birmingham's top midfielder Craig Gardner has said he is unsure of his future after the sudden departure of manager Alex McLeish. Alex McLeish joined Birmingham after managing Rangers and a short time managing the Scottish National side, but he has seen Birmingham relegated twice, and got them promoted once, so why he would be interesting [.

Newcastle United are allegedly pursuing yet another two midfielders in an attempt to build the largest midfield in history. Birmingham's Craig Gardner and Bayer Leverkusen's Tranquillo Barnetta are today's offerings. Of course, not all transfer speculation is true. In fact most of it isn't. But if you ever needed an extra hint that some of [.

Newcastle United are allegedly pursuing yet another two midfielders in an attempt to build the largest midfield in history. Birmingham's Craig Gardner and Bayer Leverkusen's Tranquillo Barnetta are today's offerings. Of course, not all transfer speculation is true. In fact most of it isn't. But if you ever needed an extra hint that some of [.

There has been news in the last couple of days that Newcastle may be interested in acquiring Birmingham City midfielder Craig Gardner. Craig Gardner Newcastle interested? The 24 year-old former Aston Villa player is a very decent player, and he can score goals too, as he hit 10 goals for Birmingham last season, and [.

By their very nature relegated teams are not overloaded with talent worthy of the Premier League. That is not to say that West Ham United, Blackpool and Birmingham City do not have players who will attract interest from top flight clubs. Some players are already the subject of approaches.
West Ham have a core of English players who, whilst generally have been disappointing this season, will be attractive due to their Premier League experience and native nationality.

In a dramatic final day of the Premier League season, Blackpool and Birmingham City were relegated while Wolves stayed up despite losing 3-2 at home to Blackburn.

Of the five teams in danger of being relegated, Blackpool had the toughest fixture, as they had to travel to Old Trafford and play the champions.

In a dramatic final day of the Premier League season, Blackpool and Birmingham City were relegated while Wolves stayed up despite losing 3-2 at home to Blackburn.

Of the five teams in danger of being relegated, Blackpool had the toughest fixture, as they had to travel to Old Trafford and play the champions.